Mammalian embryogenesis is a process which encompasses the first few weeks of development following conception. During this period, embryogenesis proceeds from a single fertilized egg to the formation of the three embryonic tissues, then to an embryo which has most of its internal organs and all of its external features.
The normal course of mammalian embryogenesis depends on the correct temporal and spatial regulation of a large number of genes and tissues. These regulation processes have been intensely studied in mouse. For example, spindlin (Spin) is an abundant maternal transcript present in the unfertilized egg and 2-cell stage embryo. Spindlin functions in cell-cycle regulation during the transition from gamete to embryo; its activity is modulated by cell cycle-dependent phosphorylation (Oh, B. et al. (1997) Development 124: 493-503). Another maternal transcript, Mem3 is abundant in the unfertilized egg and the newly formed zygote (Hwang, S. et al. (1996) Mamm. Genome 7: 586-590). The amino acid sequence of Mem3 resembles the yeast vacuolar protein sorting 35 (VPS35), a protein involved in the intracellular sorting of proteases and hydrolases. Many of the lysosomal storage diseases in human and other mammals appear to be caused by incorrect sorting of the lysosomal hydrolases. Still another maternally transcribed protein, Maid, is shown to be a negative regulator of basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) proteins (GI 1255172). bHLH proteins are a group of transcription factors which play a pivotal role in cell differentiation, tissue-specific determination, and embryogenesis. Dysregulated expression or loss of function of these bHLH protein have been correlated with the development of leukemia and tumors (Gitelman, I. (1997) Dev. Biol. 189: 205-214; Rostomily, R. C. et al. (1997) Cancer Res. 57: 3526-3531).
The discovery of a new human maternally transcribed protein and the polynucleotides encoding it satisfies a need in the art by providing new compositions which are useful in the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of inflammation and disorders associated with cell proliferation and apoptosis.